It was a horrible dream, and Sir Philip awoke unnerved and alarmed. At the same hour of the night visions of help and escape hovered over Stella, the memory of which kept her in a fever of excitement throughout the day. Mechanically she let them attire her in her bridal robes in the afternoon, and Sir Philip was sent for to see her in them. She was white as her dress, and her eyes shone strangely. The look of strain and tension about her face startled her father, suggesting, as it did, a state of mind bordering on insanity. Had these three weeks of solitary confinement been too much for her? he wondered. “I am glad,” he said, speaking more gently than usual, “to see that you are prepared to accept with pleasure the brilliant fate in store for you.” She stared at him for a moment, and then disconcerted him by giving vent to a low, mirthless laugh as she turned away. Alarmed by something unexpected and uncanny in her manner, Sir Philip took Dakin apart, and gave orders that for the rest of the evening Miss Cranstoun was to be closely watched, but allowed apparent liberty of action. “Does she seem to you at all light-headed?” he asked, and Dakin owned that that idea had occurred to her. “Let her move about the house,” Sir Philip said, “always, of course, with one or two persons within call. Fretting and starving in that foolish way have pulled her down badly.” All the watching during that evening, however, fell to Dakin’s share, for handsome Stephen Lee presented himself in the servants’ hall, and made such open love to Ellen that that young woman forgot everything in the joy of her supposed conquest. Finding that she was able to leave her room unmolested, and remembering well old Sarah’s promise of help on the wedding eve, Stella took the opportunity while her father was at dinner of running lightly down the broad oak staircase toward the hall door. Here she paused a moment, and then suddenly, with trembling fingers and thumping heart, she drew back the bolt of the door. Dakin was close behind her, although she knew it not; and Dakin followed her young mistress out on the terrace, hiding in the shadow of the doorway, and watched her hesitate a moment, and then speed across the grass to where the woods began, and lose herself among the gathering shadows. CHAPTER XVI. THE CHARM. Stella’s sudden disappearance startled Dakin. She had believed the girl to be too seriously ill to attempt to run away. But, after all, as she told herself, stepping gingerly on to the wet grass after her errant charge, Miss Cranstoun couldn’t go very far. Still she was nervous. Sir Philip had given particular orders that his daughter should have more liberty this evening, but he had said nothing about permitting her to stray about the grounds.